1.2 million Canadians plan to call in sick to work on Black Friday

What are you willing to do for a good deal? Would your ethics go out the window completely in the name of a wild sale?

Would you even lie to your boss? Apparently 1.2 million Canadians plan to call in sick in the name of catching some sweet Black Friday sales on November 27.

According to a new study from IPG Mediabrands, even more Canadians plan to take a vacation day to fulfill their shopping desires – 6.4 million to be exact, bringing the total number of work days lost to close to 8 million.

“On the one hand this is great news for retailers looking to boost their sales figures, but on the other it’s pretty clear ‘Slack Friday’ is hurting productivity,” Loraine Cordery, Insights Manager for IPG Mediabrands, said in a release.

“Black Friday is fully transitioning into a Canadian sales event, no longer simply being used as a tactic to keep Canadians from cross border shopping.”

Fortunately, many Canadians find tactics like calling in sick to work to catch a deal unethical. Around 44 per cent think the appropriate punishment is job termination.

Nearly 2/3 of all Canadians plan to shop on either Black Friday or Cyber Monday, largely for electronics. Over half will be seeking out deals on laptops, 24 per cent will want cheap tablets, and 11 per cent are in it for mobile phones.

If you plan on braving the crowds for Black Friday sales, be careful: 34 per cent of Canadians say they’ve witnessed physical altercations over items sold on Black Friday.

If Canada approaches American-level Black Friday pandemonium, we’ll have to expect more of this:

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DH Vancouver Staff

Daily Hive is the evolution of Vancity Buzz, established in Vancouver in 2008. In 2016, the publication rebranded and opened newsrooms in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Send story tips to [email protected]